1. Read the Question Backward First (Most Important Trick)
Start with the last line:
“What should you do?”
“Which two actions should they take?”
“Which deployment strategy should you use?”
This tells you:
- Are you choosing one or multiple answers?
- Are they asking for:
- Best practice?
- Fastest?
- Cheapest?
- Most reliable?
📌 Never read options before understanding what is being asked.
2. Identify the Service Domain
Ask yourself immediately:
“Which GCP area does this belong to?”
| Keyword in question | Domain |
|---|---|
| Compute Engine | VM / OS / Networking |
| GKE | Kubernetes |
| App Engine | PaaS / request limits |
| Cloud Storage | Object storage / throughput |
| BigQuery | Analytics / ingestion |
| Cloud SQL / Spanner | Databases |
| Stackdriver | Monitoring / alerting |
| Load balancer | Networking / firewall |
📌 Once you know the domain, eliminate 50% of wrong answers instantly.
3. Circle the Hard Constraints (Non-Negotiables)
These are phrases like:
- ❗ You cannot change the application
- ❗ Do not whitelist IPs
- ❗ Minimize user impact
- ❗ 99.999% availability
- ❗ Within the same GKE cluster
👉 Any option violating a hard constraint is automatically wrong.
Example:
“You do not want to whitelist IPs”
❌ Any answer involving IP whitelisting = WRONG
4. Detect the Hidden Exam Keyword
GCP exams are keyword-driven.
| Keyword | What Google expects |
|---|---|
| A/B testing | App Engine traffic splitting |
| Reduce user impact | Canary deployment |
| Large file upload | Signed URLs |
| Process stopped | Metric absence |
| Internal GKE traffic | Service name |
| Global + 5 nines | Spanner multi-region |
| 429 errors | Rate limiting / ramp-up |
| Health checks | Firewall rules |
📌 Once you see the keyword, the answer usually becomes obvious.
5. Ask: “What Would Google Want Me To Use?”
Google exams prefer:
- Managed services
- Native GCP features
- Simpler architecture
- Less ops work
| If you see | Prefer |
|---|---|
| Manual replication | Managed replication |
| Custom scripts | Built-in feature |
| Multiple VMs | Managed service |
| Complex architecture | Simple native option |
📌 If one option sounds too clever → it’s usually wrong.
6. Eliminate Wrong Answers Aggressively
Don’t try to find the correct answer first.
Instead, kill wrong answers.
Common wrong-option patterns:
- ❌ Fake commands (
gcloud compute mv) - ❌ Non-existent features
- ❌ Overengineering
- ❌ Mixing services incorrectly (Cloud DNS inside GKE)
- ❌ Security/IAM used for networking problems
Usually:
- 2 options are obviously wrong
- 1 is technically possible but not best
- 1 is clearly aligned with GCP best practices
7. Match the Answer to the Exact Requirement
Ask:
“Does this option solve all requirements?”
Example:
- Low latency ❌ but no high availability
- High availability ❌ but global users suffer latency
👉 Partial solutions are wrong in GCP exams.
8. Build Mental Maps (Very Important)
Memorize these exam associations:
Storage
- Large uploads → Signed URLs
- 429 errors → Gradual ramp-up
GKE
- Traffic routing → Readiness probe
- Pod discovery → Service name
- Internal traffic → ClusterIP
Databases
- No IP whitelist → Private IP
- Global + strong consistency → Spanner
Monitoring
- Something stopped → Metric absence
- Endpoint down → Uptime check
9. Ignore Real-World Bias (Exam ≠ Real Life)
In real life you might:
- Build custom solutions
- Add extra tools
In the exam:
Always choose the simplest native GCP answer.
10. Final Exam Mindset (This Is Critical)
Before clicking an answer, say:
“If Google Cloud wrote this question, would they want me to choose this option?”
If yes → correct
If it feels hacky → wrong